February 17, 2018

"Now, he simply tweets. Caustically, colorfully and repeatedly. Suddenly, he said of his foes, 'I have more power than they do. I can let people know that they were a fraud... I can let people know that they have no talent, that they didn’t know what they’re doing. You have a voice.'... Mr. Trump... is an improbable virtuoso of the tweet...."

... Mr. Trump has mastered Twitter in a way no candidate for president ever has, unleashing and redefining its power as a tool of political promotion, distraction, score-settling and attack — and turning a 140-character task that other candidates farm out to young staff members into a centerpiece of his campaign.

"Farm out" to their troll farm.

In the process, he has managed to fulfill a vision, long predicted but slow to materialize, sketched out a decade ago by a handful of digital campaign strategists: a White House candidacy that forgoes costly, conventional methods of political communication and relies instead on the free, urgent and visceral platforms of social media.

The writer is Michael Barbaro, whom you might know from "The Daily" podcast (at the NYT), which I listen to every weekday. It's great, and I am enjoying happening upon this old article of his, which has special resonance today as we're called upon to fear the national security threat posed by the Russian troll farm. Not only did (and does) Trump do his own tweets, he understands Americans enough to say things that reach us in places Russians don't know about.

Democrats never cared about collateral damage or Trump would never have been elected because they wouldn’t have turned their backs on working whites. Even the union ones have lots of non-union friends and can see the way the wind is blowing.

Well, Althouse; it would seem that Trump does his own tweets, EXCEPT on those occasions when the tweets are so stupid, so reckless, and so counter to his lawyers' calculated narrative, that one of the lawyers has to hastily take credit for the authorship. Which, like, we all really believe...

Some observers have said the tweet showed Trump knew Flynn had committed a crime and sought to obstruct justice by, among other actions, firing then FBI director James Comey.

Chuck’s link wherein once again, frustrated people try to nail Jell-o to a wall. We all know Trump is a braggadocios liar, but he is honest about the important stuff, stuff Democrats and Republicans used to care about.

Richard Fernandez has been writing about the "faithless agent" problem in American government.

It's interesting to see the gun ban rhetoric get pushed aside by a lot of people blaming the FBI for the school shooting.

The FBI got into this situation when it went political against Trump. That torpedo missed and is now headed back to the origin. The FBI made a huge mistake. They are used to crooked politicians like Nixon and Johnson.

They always had a store of dirt on them going back years,

With Trump all they have is public knowledge about women, all consensual and, after Billy Clinton, of no particular interest,

Amazing! This man Trump Tweets with authority and a respect for our intelligence, not like our Media scribes blathering on at a 3rd grade level audience while they smile in delight at their duping them.

As for our Chuck, he has mastered the talent of speaking in a rational and educated tone of voice. Too bad he is a total fraud.

We all know that Trump is setting a high bar for tweeting and here is an example of what Lindsey Vonn received":I just spent last 20 min's reading thru tweets directed at @lindseyvonn. Sickened & disgusted once again by the lack of humanity that engulfs our country. She just raced her damn heart out & Trump supporters gloat/cheer/celebrate her inability to medal. Is this what we've become?"

Yeah, it breaks my heart that the partisan harpy who used her position as a representative of all America, to put forth her nutcake political views, kind of like certain college professors use their positions, BTW. Didn’t win any medals. Fuck her. But why did you spend 20 minutes reading it? What sick compulsion is that?

You know that any troglodyte with a working opposable thumb, and even some without, can get a Twitter account.

We must never forget that no matter how dastardly, or despicable a Defendant might seem, under our noble traditions of American jurisprudence, even the 13 Russian internet trolls are presumed INNOCENT - until proven guilty.

If she is going to take sides against half of America, she shouldn’t expect their support. And admit it R/V, you were hoping she would win to give her views more credibility, and now you are pouting. Whatever. She dragged politics into it, so she can live with the hate that her own spouting of hate brings.

What I want to know is simply this. Is Robert Cook one of the Russian Internet trolls? How about roesch? Freder? Toothless? I notice that Inga disappeared about the time Mueller was readying his indictments.

Mike( you do realize that Althouse asks for our emails in order to assure we are who we claim to be?)But back to trolls and stupid lies I quote this from a recent New Yorker article: " Even the trolls themselves were surprised at what Americans would believe. According to the indictment, in September, 2017, once U.S. authorities had begun to crack down on the fraud, one of the defendants, Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, e-mailed a family member, saying, “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” She went on, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.

And Tim yes I voted for Clinton after the primary where I didn't even through I thought, and still do, that she was a War Hawk--but the lesser of two evils. I am not pouting but resisting as I would no matter who was in office pushing an agenda I didn't agree with.

Commie assholes like roachy call Trump a traitor 24/7 and then wet their panties when a hater like Lindsey Vonn gets her just desserts.

Ms. Vonn should have shut her pie hole and not attacked the God Emperor.,Don Surber has an ongoing list of people who attack President Trump and end up losing everything. From Jeff Flake to Kathy Griffin. You think these losers would learn.

Langford the only time that happened to me when I was teaching a film class, I said no and suggested she might want to attend a film school in LA. I later learned she became an editor in Hollywood. At any rate, I will continue to pay attention to our current political situation and criticize your G-d Emperor when he deserves it.

Obama has a twitter account with millions of followers, even more than Trump.

Is a “follower” someone with a Twitter account? How about folks like me who have no Twitter account (and have no intention to ever get one) yet read Trump’s tweets frequently? Are Obama supporters more likely or less likely to have a Twitter account than Trump supporters?

Could it be that many of people who read Trump’s tweets are not registered with Twitter and therefore not countable? I wonder what percentage of the readers of both accounts are uncounted because they are not Twitter members and cannot “follow” the accounts.

I think estimates of strength based on number of Twitter followers are shit, just like the polls turned out to be shit during the primaries and general election. One tweet by Trump is echoed a thousand times throughout the MSM and the internet. Obama’s tweets rarely get that kind of social traction.

It doesn't matter. Any singer or athlete who attacks half of the country is just a fool. They think the universal approbation of the ultra-liberal sportswriters reflects what the average person thinks. Or least half the average people.

r/V: She just raced her damn heart out & Trump supporters gloat/cheer/celebrate her inability to medal. Is this what we've become?

You rotting pearl-clutching hypocrites really need to give it a fucking rest. Whited sepulchers still reek, and your stench is so bad it oozes out through the pixels. Go get yourselves and your bad faith a decent burial before you become a public health menace.

I still don't get all the anger here. The right controls all three arms of government and yet is reduced to bitching about the political views of our Olympic athletes. So what if she's not a fan of Trump? She represents our country well and she is physically brave, unlike some we might mention.

We are not bitching about her hatred of President Trump. We are just giving it back to her. Hard.

Those are the new rules. You guys were happy to call every Rebuplican from Bush to Romney to Trump every name in the book from Nazi to Chimp to traitor. Now you social justice warriors are going to get it back in spades.

You are always entitled to free speech and to get free speech right back at you.

The right controls all three arms of government and yet is reduced to bitching about the political views of our Olympic athletes. So what if she's not a fan of Trump? She represents our country well

I know you are terminally purblind ARM, utterly lacking in self awareness, introspection of any kind, but just imagine if she were hectoring us about her support for Trump, how would you react?

I haven’t even watched the Olympics because of all of the political nonsense, and she was sort of the face of it all. If she was truly giving her heart and soul to the games, she wouldn’t have had time to ignorantly lecture us on our politics. And I am 100% certain that you would not have headed over to liberal blogs to lecture the denizens there about commenting on a hypothetical Trump supporting athlete who fell far short of her lofty expectations.

It’s all like ESPN now. You have to listen to a sermon to watch a game. Lots of other stuff to do. You liberals enjoy your white-left Olympics.

@roesch, as regards your voice last November, you must be much more comfortable with open, rampant, corruption than I. Fair, enough.

Athletically, I feel sorry for Vonn. Going first on that course was a terrible handicap but that is, literally, the luck of the draw. But I don’t feel sorry about the nasty tweets she’s getting. Did you imagine that only the left would get to send nasty tweets to people they don’t much like? Here I’m thinking of the father of one of the murdered teenagers who was photographed wearing a Trump T-shirt, and received some pretty nasty tweets. But there is no one on the left — you included — who isn’t, deep inside, a pretty nasty piece of work.

Moreover, for athletes the rule is simple: win first, then make a jackass out of yourself by grandly announcing who you will and won’t permit to honor your achievements. Lindsey must have missed the memo.

I saw Lindsey Vonn in Sports Illustrated. In fact I saw nearly all of her. My point being, she’s a bit of an attention whore, but you have to back it up on the course.

It’s not anger either, it’s bemusement, and good fun. She might be angry about politics, but we aren’t. As you noted, R’s are doing fine right now. And we don’t really get angry over politics, being that the desire to control others isn’t strong within us, as it is. with liberals, who are seeing their need to control everybody frustrated right now.

Oh, that’s right. You addressed me personally, presumably regarding my comment at 11:36. By now, roesch, you should realize that I enjoy needling pompous left-wing twits like you and ARM. I’d like to buy you for what you’re really worth and sell you for what you think you’re worth.

Curiously, Matthews is the only Russian expert that hasn't been asked to comment, I think Lawrence is wrongly cast, as dominika, I think alone tal who played a Russian sleeper on burn notice (she's Israeli) or ellen satine (from Georgia) most recently on the gifted, captures the character better.

Back in the Obama days the Dems mocked the GOP's lack of sophistication using social media, by its nature a coarse, shallow method of communication. Now they whine about Mr Trump's mastery of social media as coarse and shallow.

“According to the indictment, in September, 2017, once U.S. authorities had begun to crack down on the fraud, one of the defendants, Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, e-mailed a family member, saying, “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” She went on, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”

I’m surprised at what you believe. This is hearsay by someone making an assertion about something she doesn’t even have direct knowledge of.

Can we all smarten up a bit... for the sake of democracy and to deserve this thing we have called free speech.

For Trump often he doesn't even have to take his court dramas to trial. Since he can afford a ton of lawyers - (including that Michael Cohen guy who seems to make it his primary business to pay off his extramarital conquests) - usually the threat of a suit is enough. Most of the time it's on frivolous grounds that would be laughed out of court but he gets traction from his threats anyway because of how many of them he can pay off to keep his adversaries outmatched legally and without the resources to get him to back down.

Any lawyer or law professor who defends this sort of abuse of process is a scumbag. Trump's Team almost never wins actual cases - not on their merits, at least. They win the right to drag down their opponents in greater amounts legal red tape than the opponents can afford, so to speak.

His murkiest dealings involved a major cocaine and marijuana drug trafficker named Joseph Weichselbaum – for whom Trump did unusual favours.

Weichselbaum was already a twice-convicted felon with convictions for car theft and embezzlement, when, in 1982, he and his brother landed the contract to provide a helicopter service to ferry high rollers to and from Trump casinos in Atlantic City.

Trump is no drug user. He doesn’t drink or smoke. But it was open knowledge in Atlantic City that high rollers could get anything they wanted.

Those who brought lots of cash could get, for a price, whatever they wanted – be it illicit sex, drugs, or anything else.In 1985 Weichselbaum was indicted for drug trafficking. One shipment alone involved three-quarters of a ton of marijuana.

Strangely Trump retained the firm for his casino shuttles and to service his personal helicopter, paying more than $2 million a year.

The Weichselbaum case was moved to New Jersey and assigned to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry – Trump’s older sister.

She removed herself, thereby sending a powerful message that this was a case with potential to embarrass the bench.

Trump wrote a letter to the replacement judge asking for leniency. In contrast to lengthy sentences passed on bit players on the same indictment, Weichselbaum got three years.

One of you folks asked whether we had any high quality homos for figure skating---since most of the top dogs on theUS team are Asian. Why yes we do have such a high quality ==even "white" figure skater, Adam Rippon. Of course Adam was shooting his mouth off and generally mau mauing Mike Pence. That was before Adam had to put up or shut up on the ice. Can't say that I minded seeing him well down in the final results.

Now Adam can say any dang thing he pleases--and more power to him. But I didn't stand back in awe at his intellect or political knowledge. OTOH he does know how to do a triple axel--which I can't do. So there is that. But that's why I would watch him--his skating ability, which is impressive--but not impressive enough to win. As for his "smarts"--not so much.

I think a lot of people are honestly assuming all this, or much of this, is done in good faith. Its a holdover, I think, from a childhood in a high-trust society. Its difficult to afterwards adjust to a culture that is not.

There is also the implicit assumption that the old high-trust culture can be restored by some effort of will, some mechanism, some act of persuasion, some meeting of minds. But this involves changing the world-view of many millions of other people, lots of whom are more powerful than you are.

As this quote, and many (most?) in these threads, show the whole point of free speech (as understood in the modern context) is precisely that it has nothing to do w/ smartening up. In fact it enshrines and exalts dumbing it up.

So, I'm for dumbing it up, IOW I'm for free speech.

In that spirit, i.e. furthering dumb: Carry/speak/type on!

OTOH, it's a true strict constructionist (not me) anathema to run w/ our current-day pro dumby free speech POV and tie it into the founders. We're supposed to act as if the US in the 1700s was all woke, like today's jabber-framing.

I grew up where one assumed the cops were all on the take; politicians never went out without a carload of goons; where if you wanted something at city hall/the municipio it was best to know someone; where people were SCARED of the Guardia Civil, and hid when they walked down the street.

If you are not paranoid, you aren't paying attention. You cannot really be paranoid enough - this is a hall of mirrors filled with smoke and fog.

Muellers investigation was ginned up from a pile of fabrications created by a clique of senior FBI personnel tied to previous malicious wrongdoing, and partisan operatives. He stocks his investigation with a horde of partisans.

And the anti-side has any number of erstwhile Republicans just as tied to an immensely corrupt system as anyone else.

You really shouldn't trust anyone. There are no white hats here, they are all black, or shades of grey.

buwaya you have no special insight here. I see no evidence that Mueller's investigation is corrupt. It was not inevitable, it was the direct product of Trump's own actions. There is no disagreement on that point. There are several prima donnas and at least one dumbass, but no conspiracy.

Joe Kennedy the father was a partner with Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky in bootlegging in the 1920's. His son JFK was just the frontman like Truman. Unfortunately old Joe stroked out and his idiot sons put in the double cross.

When they doubled crossed the Deep State in Cuba and later Vietnam they both ended up dead.

JFK was his daddy's protege and proxy. Until his dad died and thereby cut him loose.But until then, it was Joe Kennedys money and Joe Kennedys friends, and Joe Kennedys political judgement that made JFK. I believe it was even Joe that hired Ted Sorensen.

In fact, the Republican primary was set up in his favor (not deliberately). He lost the popular vote yet still won (again not a deliberate choice by the framers). You are suggesting broad-based fraud in the electoral system. The independent polls before the election were in agreement with the popular vote. To believe what you wrote you have to believe in a conspiracy that would so massive in scope as to be impossible to keep hidden for even a few days.

I write my comments. I am rarely angry. Bemused, maybe. But your prejudices about me are far more informative, I am sure. I live among liberals, they like me because I am a funny guy who is loving and warm and always willing to give a hand. Oddly, they mostly hate Hillary too, and I don't hate Bernie, so we bond over that. I think Trump is deeply flawed, but the choice was a Clinton. People understand that.

buwaya you have no special insight here. I see no evidence that Mueller's investigation is corrupt.

1. Putting buwaya and "insight" in the same sentence is funny. If anything he has outsight. As in the far reaches of outer space sight. He practically lives in another dimension.

2. Arguing anything with these buffoons re: Mueller is futile. They have beliefs and those beliefs are as good as reality to them. They have feelings, and they have emotions. They are all about doing whatever they can to protect the corrupt Trump administration and will make up any story they want to prove that anyone with the guts and the gore to show where he fucked up is just to be eliminated, somehow - including Mueller.

Their faith in Trump is theological. Not rational. And you can't rationally talk someone out of something that they didn't reason themselves into in the first place.

"Apparently Trump's defenders are saying that the JFK presidency is their model for a modern administration. "

JFKs was the model for a Democrat administration well into the Obama years. Compared a lot to JFK he was, and by Ted himself IIRC. And, course, Clinton, and Clinton. Clinton made much of meeting JFK, a sort of pass the flag thing.

buwaya: This new America I understand very well. I liked the old one better.

Tell me about it.

I grew up and spent early adulthood in that Old America. I became an expat at the time the transformation began to kick in and accelerate, so that when I returned the change was perhaps more obvious to me than to those to whom the change had been more gradual.

But the awareness or lack thereof among us fleece-able sheep is not the only interesting psychological phenomenon to be observed re the transformation of a once high-trust society into the default state of corruption. It's also true that the "free riders" of trust, who can do very well in high-trust societies as long as the majority of their fellows continue to play by the rules, can be caught unawares by the transformation, and have a difficult time adjusting to the fact that the bottom of social capital, upon which they could profitably rely without having to contribute themselves, has dwindled.

I think this may partly explain the torrent of astonishingly transparent bullshit deployed these days in defense of the interests of these "free-riders". It really is innocent, in a way, rather than cynically disingenuous. (At certain levels. I assume the great operators are more self-aware.) "Innocent", because they've operated so long in a high-trust milieu that they assume they will be trusted, and are baffled that their quite lazy and stupid attempts at manipulation are no longer doing the trick. (Patriotism! Treason! Our Noble Institutions!) After all, the same stuff always worked a treat before. As much as many of the marks, they appear still not to have grasped that things have changed.

This being NYC and NJ, I'm not sure how Trump could have avoided dealing with the mob in some way or other. Most likely a whole lot of ways. You've got them in construction, and permits, and inspectors, and restaurants, and utilities (such as garbage disposal), and municipalities/planning commissions, unions, and ad infinitum.

What we are pointing out is that having dealings with the Mob is not unusual in Presidents. Power knows power.

What you are saying is that the more criminality in your Republican president, the more you like him.

And this was after he eked out an EC victory over a competitor he called "crooked," "corrupt," and threatened to put "in jail."

So you want a police state. One where you replace your nation's top law enforcer (president) with a criminal. One where there is no distinction between law and criminality - just in the amount of power you invest in your top criminal-cop.

Power? You want a banana republic. Those folks have lots of power - relative to their nation and its laws.

He was elected to bust shit up. To overturn the duopoly and the Swamp. I don't think he can do it.

Administration with more billionaires and pro-Wall Street types in history. These buzz phrases you mention don't mean shit; they're just a drawstring that pulls out of your neck like on a robot-doll.

The guy's a liar who sold you snake oil. More premium grade than the snake oil he sold all his life - but that's what you like about him. Salesmanship. Hell, he even made his stupid name, and all the low lack of integrity behind it, famous and ubiquitous. You wanted a liar and you got one. One that convinced you he could do that whole "working class" thing that Republicans don't really give a shit about and have never done a thing about.

He got in, cut his own taxes, and will now use the rest of his time and office doing his Bill Murray Kingpin hair for three hours every morning while he watches television and channels the nation's resources into making sure he's being praised and sending out press secretaries to complain about anyone who was not nice to him.

You got the exact baby who reflects how immature you all are. And incompetent - when it comes to anything socially valuable.

President Combover. Covering America in as many lies and deceptions as his transplants cover over his scalp.

We have known criminal ties with Democratic Presidents, at least all those after Roosevelt (and he played footsie with Joe Kennedy - heck, made him Chairman of the SEC of all things - maybe the idea was to set a thief to catch thieves?).

Tillerson is not a Wall Street type. He is an operating executive of tremendous experience, not a moneyman. He made his bones as a production engineer.

Mnuchin is a Wall Street type, but his job usually goes to one, before or post-government service. Just like Rubin, Summers, Geithner, Lew (Rubin at Chase, Lew was Citygroup, the other two are mixed up in hedge funds).

Elaine Chao isnt Wall Street. Her daddy is extremely rich but he didnt make his bucks there but in shipping.

Betsy de Vos is extremely rich as the heir to an auto parts manufacturing fortune. Not Wall Street. A coupon clipper.

And etc. Go do your homework Ritmo.

You dont have to be Wall Street to be rich. But you do have to be rich to survive the career suicide implied in taking a government appointment under Trump. The swamp, or the universities, or Wall Street, they will have their revenge on you.

I'm interested in what's going on in 2018. Clearly you aren't. I'll leave you to argue about what should or should not have happened in 1960. I know that Republicans aren't relevant to the governing of the country today, in the modern age. But it's good to see you come right out and admit it.

And you already are a banana republic.

Look, everybody! The rationalization that justifies itself.

This way buwaya can brush off all of Trump's banana republicanisms. Just say that's how it goes.

It's a great way for Republicans to have no standards. Which we already knew. But buwaya brings it to a whole new level: His guys have no standards... because - DEMOCRATS! (Made them that way, or something). Right. Lol!

You want a government of, by and for the billionaires. And now you've got yourself one. Just admit it.

You dont have to be Wall Street to be rich.

Being Wall Street helps you learn the rules for changing the economy into one that is over-leveraged and financialized to do more to continue benefiting the rich alone.

And that's the way you like it.

No one cares how Betsy douche Ross got her billions. She clearly thinks she should be able to buy influence in any policy - education, for instance - and shamelessly admitted all that years ago. Policies bought for by the rich are policies that benefit only the rich.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have "influenced" educational policy way more than Betsy De Vos - for all the crying and screaming. Actually, going up the chain of teacher training, Bill Ayers (yes, him, directly and partly through Annenberg Foundation) has influenced US education more than any of them. Check it out.

He is so desperate and sad that President Trump has done more for the working man in a year than Obama did in eight.

Oh, you mean like make them more reliant on the owners?

Yes, I do think that's what you mean.

Obama cut unemployment more than 60%. Let's see Trump do that.

...more money n their paycheck.

Same thing that happened in 2009. Let's see that sustain - especially after the taxes President Stormy Daniels cut for everyone else expire even while the taxes he cut for himself and his billionaire friends stay in place. And at a cost of a trillion more. Debt-to-GDP approaching 100% with no let-up. Great wages, though. With the money they'll owe the Chinese they'll need it, right?

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have "influenced" educational policy way more than Betsy De Vos

Why shouldn't they?

1. They know what they're talking about and have made their fortunes through smarts, not through inheritance like Bitchy Douche Vos. Unlike her, competence is something they've proven they have.

2. They're proven philanthropists who plan to give most of their wealth away and have the credibility it takes to prove they're not just pushing policies and ideas for their own benefit. Maybe once Douche Vos makes AIDS drugs and malaria treatments available in sub-Saharan Africa instead of sitting on her fat, uneducated, self-serving ass she'll have that credibility.

3. They're not agitating to cut their own taxes. Apparently they can stretch their monies further and make assets work for them in ways that your bitch Douche Vos can't.

I predict that along with Andrew Carnegie you'll see statues of Gates and Buffett on civic structures in the future. But no one will ever remember blonde education-for-dollars Trump lackey. Practically no one knows anything about her now. SHe's just another Republican party shill, peddling intellectually, morally, and socially bankrupt bullshit for the sole reason that she profits financially off it.

Maybe she should learn an actual skill and diversify her policy-income stream.

Hey, go tell that to your GOP talking points-spewing friend Langford Peel, Scrooge McDuck. He's the one trying to make Trump out to look like the 2nd coming for catching the tail-end of a ten-year long trend.

You really should learn to read, but I've told you this before. Makes you look like less of a jackass when you stumble on drunk into a thread and actually figure out whose point you're responding to.

So, other than not being able to read the thread, and repeating your mistake for the dozenth time, what else is new? Do you condense long reports into short summaries and insert self-references in them to maintain your interest like Trump does?

Maybe someday you'll become innumerate, too. Then that would be a real tragedy! A Wall Street guy who not only can't read, but can't count.

And employees reliant on owners?!! Lordy, not that. You mean the working man can just work without owners paying? Tote those barges for free? Or pay themselves?

I think Washington could make policies that benefit labor as well as owners, but you are obviously one of those types who hate OSHA, the EPA (before it cut the scientists out under Pruitt and massively hired political appointees), etc.

Under Trump the OSHA stats on weekly workplace deaths are no longer posted.

So, slightly improved (if statistically insignificant) wages, they'll all go to the Chinese, and less scrutiny on how many workers are getting killed at work. Great job, Trump administration!

Geez, Michael. You have an even harder time reading than you let on. You still think that Langford Peel's unemployment stat attributed to Trump was a greater accomplishment than cutting it in half? Man, you really are dumber than you let on, aren't you?

Look Michael - you now have company! Another semi-literate has joined the thread: bolivar di griz.

Welcome him into your fold. I'm sure the two of you will have much in common to discuss - once you decipher each others' languages beneath the grunts, barks and whistles that comprise the bulk of each one.

Actually there is still huge unemployment in the US. The Obama admin did little for that. The labor force participation rate has barely budged. The total pop employment rate has caught up less than halfway to what it was in 2008, much less 2000.

There is considerable "excess labor" in the US. The unemployment rate is a useless measure where the labor force participation rate is falling - people are being deemed to be out of the labor force, so voila, weak job growth and yet falling unemployment. Ben Bernanke said so on several occasions - rather sheepishly.

Trump has made no particular dent in these, or it has not yet shown up significantly in the statistics.

Bobcat goldswaithe is a little verklempt that someone would interfere with the mirage u 6 is a better consistent measure. The schools are not turning out candidates with the proper skills but they are woke with all the proper attitudes

Gates profits off a monopoly position. He obtained the monopoly fair and square, as he understood the requirement for OS compatibility before most caught on, and leveraged the rest from that. I met him once, in Sacramento, when he was being his salesman self pushing Excel, trying to kill Lotus. He did.

Now, dont get me wrong, Excel in particular is my favorite tool, my workshop, my jacknife, my duct tape (Bill Gates is an excellent face to face salesman), but something better could certainly replace it. But in a monopoly state based on compatibility stsndards its difficult to break in as Excel did to Lotus.

But still, a monopoly produces nothing qua monopoly, it is profit without economic value otherwise. Google and Apple and most of the remaining consolidated Silicon Valley behemoths are like that. Its a congealed, decadent state for a once dynamic industry.

They do very badly in reading and writing (goodness, the writing!), arithmetic not so bad. Everything else is utter zero. Even if they can write, they have nothing to write about. Worse, they have no idea how to find something to write about.

He. Borrowed from jobs who borrowed from the Xerox lab, just like Zuckerberg took the commission from the vinklevossi and froze out everyone including saverin. Yes o remember lotus, I mentioned constructivist programs because common core is just the latest iteration. Ignite which has been tube base template since nclb was passed is the original bad seed.

No there was a whole other lesson taught, those without a powerful lobbying apparat loose their chair when the music stops. Also cater to the progressive mouthings of progressive Washington, Zuckerberg dorsey bezos brin and page have followed suit.